Time Attack - Knockhill .... REVIEW
what a day !!!
just got back to the hotel and had a fine scottish curry
what a great day.... toally knackered now but what a day !!!
The day started with the SIDC track morning which Mike and I had booked onto the try and get a bit of practice of this circuit. First impressions of it were .... jeesh
Its only got 7 corners .... how hard can it be ? :lol:
But half of those corners are totally blind, flying sideways jumping kerbs and generally hooning around. I came to the conclusion that Mike was more willing to drive closer to the edge than I was quite early on ... more on that later though
I was logging the first track session and came in with a 1min 3 something, which I was quite pleased with after just a few laps. Came into the pits and the story for the day seemed to be my car overheating coming in the pits so plentiful supplies of water were needed to fill it up for the next outing.
Mike and I went out loads in the morning track time to try out various lines, gear choices, amount of kerb taken etc etc.. There are places where you are literally sideways flying with your foot planted to the floor waiting for it to land and drive on .... then there were other corners where you have to be even more committed :lol: ... not a day for the faint hearted. I had thought the mike was quick in the morning sessions where my time had come down to 1 min 2 but still hadnt got the hairpin right.
This I was determined to improve in the afternoon TA sessions.
Session 1 Warm up
My transponder wasnt working so the MST timing guys logged me at a 4min 6 lap
... the guy came up and got me to relocate it afterwards
Session 2 Practice (DRY)
Mike was flying clocking a high 59 sec lap which was stunning - my best was 1 min 2 but got badly baulked on a real flyer as the traffic was horrendous through the whole session for me and struggled to piece a good lap together.
It then started raining at the end of the session .... oh dear this will be fun
We came in from this session and the heavens opened on us - it was horizontal rain !!
Session 3 Qualifying (WET)
Again Mike was throwing caution to the wind and chucked his car into the corners with bigger balls than me. I was airborne several times a lap and sideways a lot but Mike seemed to be able to hook it up better than me in the wet. Having said that he hooked it up better than anyone in the wet coming in with fastest Club Challenge Driver, with me in 6th. I was delighted with this and Mike was like a schoolkid ... lovely to see someone so happy - well done Mike.
As for the hairpin, this comes at the end of the straight and is a heavy braking zone (yes pf brakes worked again) but i had a choice to try and get as much speed as possible for the uphill section:
Option 1 - trail brake into it keeping it tidy and then apply power when at the apex to bring the speed onto the uphill straight
Option 2 - brake in a straight line get a good line in a drive fighting some understeer until you can get on the power
Option 3 - stand on the brakes and turn in whilst at the same time burying the right foot to bring the car sideways within an inch of the edge of the exit kerb and gravel trap to the delights of the crowd.
Unlike my normal smooth driving style, weirdly I chose option 3 as it seemed the quickest and certainly made me laugh all the way up the start/finish straight and that was important to me ... love it
Then, just as we thought we knew what Scottish rain was like ... it well and trully lobbed it down ...... hmmmm
TA Final (WET WET WET)
The hotlaps were decided to allow 2 hot laps following a drivers meeting to allow for some degree of tyres warming up. This was good as we got two goes to post a good time.
We queued in the Pitlane and were supposed to head out onto the track in reverse seeding from the qualifying session. This would have put Mike running last and me 6th from last - on a drying track this would have been good.
As it happens, Mike was first out on track. A drenched, puddly, wet slippery water fest of a track. I was sitting in the pitlane ready to go out 4th and saw mike go steaming through on his first hotlap - looked great. Saw him come past for the second time, this time slewing sideways one way then the other entering the downhill, off camber, blind series of corners called Seat Curves.... he didnt appear round again hmmm. I was worried... really worried. The the marshall said GO - so off on track for my laps. It was slippery, really slippery but full of confidence from the previous wet session, I made swift progress and caught the person that had set off in front of me. At least I didnt come last
Anyway results ....
TA Club Challenge
Mike Payne 6th Place from the one hot lap and some gravel to take home with him for the second (well done :thumb:)
Duncan Graham 14th Place
I believe that there was over 30 CC competitors so overall well chuffed with it and had a ball - what a great circuit (well worth the long trip even for a track day IMO)
The icing on the cake was yet to come in the form of Bladerider ..... but I will let him tell you that. Suffice to say I was welling up with pride - the boy done good :thumb:
what a great day.... toally knackered now but what a day !!!
The day started with the SIDC track morning which Mike and I had booked onto the try and get a bit of practice of this circuit. First impressions of it were .... jeesh
Its only got 7 corners .... how hard can it be ? :lol:
But half of those corners are totally blind, flying sideways jumping kerbs and generally hooning around. I came to the conclusion that Mike was more willing to drive closer to the edge than I was quite early on ... more on that later though
I was logging the first track session and came in with a 1min 3 something, which I was quite pleased with after just a few laps. Came into the pits and the story for the day seemed to be my car overheating coming in the pits so plentiful supplies of water were needed to fill it up for the next outing.
Mike and I went out loads in the morning track time to try out various lines, gear choices, amount of kerb taken etc etc.. There are places where you are literally sideways flying with your foot planted to the floor waiting for it to land and drive on .... then there were other corners where you have to be even more committed
:lol: ... not a day for the faint hearted. I had thought the mike was quick in the morning sessions where my time had come down to 1 min 2 but still hadnt got the hairpin right.This I was determined to improve in the afternoon TA sessions.
Session 1 Warm up
My transponder wasnt working so the MST timing guys logged me at a 4min 6 lap
... the guy came up and got me to relocate it afterwardsSession 2 Practice (DRY)
Mike was flying clocking a high 59 sec lap which was stunning - my best was 1 min 2 but got badly baulked on a real flyer as the traffic was horrendous through the whole session for me and struggled to piece a good lap together.
It then started raining at the end of the session .... oh dear this will be fun
We came in from this session and the heavens opened on us - it was horizontal rain !!
Session 3 Qualifying (WET)
Again Mike was throwing caution to the wind and chucked his car into the corners with bigger balls than me. I was airborne several times a lap and sideways a lot but Mike seemed to be able to hook it up better than me in the wet. Having said that he hooked it up better than anyone in the wet coming in with fastest Club Challenge Driver, with me in 6th. I was delighted with this and Mike was like a schoolkid ... lovely to see someone so happy - well done Mike.
As for the hairpin, this comes at the end of the straight and is a heavy braking zone (yes pf brakes worked again) but i had a choice to try and get as much speed as possible for the uphill section:
Option 1 - trail brake into it keeping it tidy and then apply power when at the apex to bring the speed onto the uphill straight
Option 2 - brake in a straight line get a good line in a drive fighting some understeer until you can get on the power
Option 3 - stand on the brakes and turn in whilst at the same time burying the right foot to bring the car sideways within an inch of the edge of the exit kerb and gravel trap to the delights of the crowd.
Unlike my normal smooth driving style, weirdly I chose option 3 as it seemed the quickest and certainly made me laugh all the way up the start/finish straight and that was important to me ... love it
Then, just as we thought we knew what Scottish rain was like ... it well and trully lobbed it down ...... hmmmm
TA Final (WET WET WET)
The hotlaps were decided to allow 2 hot laps following a drivers meeting to allow for some degree of tyres warming up. This was good as we got two goes to post a good time.
We queued in the Pitlane and were supposed to head out onto the track in reverse seeding from the qualifying session. This would have put Mike running last and me 6th from last - on a drying track this would have been good.
As it happens, Mike was first out on track. A drenched, puddly, wet slippery water fest of a track. I was sitting in the pitlane ready to go out 4th and saw mike go steaming through on his first hotlap - looked great. Saw him come past for the second time, this time slewing sideways one way then the other entering the downhill, off camber, blind series of corners called Seat Curves.... he didnt appear round again hmmm. I was worried... really worried. The the marshall said GO - so off on track for my laps. It was slippery, really slippery but full of confidence from the previous wet session, I made swift progress and caught the person that had set off in front of me. At least I didnt come last
Anyway results ....
TA Club Challenge
Mike Payne 6th Place from the one hot lap and some gravel to take home with him for the second (well done :thumb:)
Duncan Graham 14th Place
I believe that there was over 30 CC competitors so overall well chuffed with it and had a ball - what a great circuit (well worth the long trip even for a track day IMO)
The icing on the cake was yet to come in the form of Bladerider ..... but I will let him tell you that. Suffice to say I was welling up with pride - the boy done good :thumb:
-
TrackScotland
- Posts: 160
- Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2007 12:13 pm
A few words from us
car was going ok in the morning..... clutch started slipping, got worse....
Its still drinking a hell of a lot of oil, its dropping to 5 ocaisionally and from after TimeAttack warm up it wasnt boosting properly.
Time Attack.
Fee did a 62sec lap in the warmup session, 65 in practice 1 with clutch slipping and boost probs. Last practice was 71 in pishing wet.
She did a 70 in the final (i think) in the wet. The track was drying, so if she had of just waited towards the back of the pack she may have gotten a better time.
I think she finished 17th in the Club Class
pics
Fee finished between the other 2 R32 GTR's in club class. 1 sec behind DCY
more pictures here - http://www.trackscotland.co.uk/forums/v ... =1126#1126
car was going ok in the morning..... clutch started slipping, got worse....
Its still drinking a hell of a lot of oil, its dropping to 5 ocaisionally and from after TimeAttack warm up it wasnt boosting properly.
Time Attack.
Fee did a 62sec lap in the warmup session, 65 in practice 1 with clutch slipping and boost probs. Last practice was 71 in pishing wet.
She did a 70 in the final (i think) in the wet. The track was drying, so if she had of just waited towards the back of the pack she may have gotten a better time.
I think she finished 17th in the Club Class
pics
Fee finished between the other 2 R32 GTR's in club class. 1 sec behind DCY
more pictures here - http://www.trackscotland.co.uk/forums/v ... =1126#1126
Well done to all involved and a nice write up there Papa Smurf.
Nice pics....but still no RX7 pics...the whifbitz fds were there.....are RX7s shy ?!!!? No comment please.
Actually just seen it on the pic with the blue scoob.
A great day for you all and well done with the results, mucho respect to you Dunk for never being on the track before and getting a good result.
Nice pics....but still no RX7 pics...the whifbitz fds were there.....are RX7s shy ?!!!? No comment please.
Actually just seen it on the pic with the blue scoob.
A great day for you all and well done with the results, mucho respect to you Dunk for never being on the track before and getting a good result.
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Gareth
Gareth
